Effective Teaching in the 21st Century
In our experience, school change happens only when teachers are allowed to own and drive the change. Teachers embody the culture and the purpose of a school and, when properly supported and inspired, teachers will transform schools with their energy and ideas around learning.
Teaching in the 21st century is not only a skill; it’s a mindset shift. Therefore, educator development needs to be long-term and continuous to be effective. An in-service teacher training workshop is great for exposing teachers to new ideas, but true change in the classroom requires long-term work. Our experience shows, and data confirms, that long-term coaching is a powerful strategy for helping teachers shift their practice. A 2007 study by the University of Kansas found that a single in-service workshop results in a 15 percent teacher implementation rate, whereas a workshop plus year-round coaching results in an 85 percent implementation rate (Cornett and Knight, 2007).
At World Leadership School, we offer four main avenues of Educator Development: in-service workshops, one-on-one coaching through our Virtual Coaching Institute, educator travel programs, and annual Global Gathering conferences and Summits. Each school is different, and we employ different teacher coaching strategies according to each context. Often, we use one strategy to support another — an in-service workshop, for example, will allow us to identify a small group of motivated teachers who will then receive year-long coaching in the Virtual Coaching Institute.
The best way to learn about Educator Development and training is to schedule a call with Shayna Cooke, our Director of Educator Development.
Our interactive workshops leverage the faculty’s passions and help all teachers reflect critically on their courses in relevant and meaningful ways. World Leadership School offers the following range of workshops on teaching & learning, which can be blended and tailored to the needs of a particular school:
- Purpose Clarification for Educators
- Purpose Exploration in the Curriculum
- Purpose Ideation – Big Picture Learning
- Best Practices in Global Learning (all disciplines and grade levels)
- Development and Assessment of Global Competencies
- Introduction to Project-Based Learning (PBL)
- Deeper Dive into Project-Based Learning: Running and Managing The Project
- Risk Management 101: How can we deepen the learning and manage risk?
These full-day workshops are generally 3 – 6 hours long so there is time for coaching of grade-level teams, academic departments, and/or individual teachers looking for additional support. These visits can also include workshops with the school’s Board and/or Parents’ Association, particularly if developing buy-in across the community is a goal.
Each year, our team of Coaches works closely with a select group of passionate and experienced educators. Our goal is to coach these teachers through the process of re-imagining their teaching practice and creating learning showcases that embody the future of learning at their school. A handful of learning showcases can accelerate change in a school by energizing and inspiring students, parents, and other teachers.
Each VCI teacher begins by developing goals with his or her assigned coach, and then meets virtually with the coach on a regular basis throughout the school year. At some schools, one VCI is shared across a team of teachers, so that an entire grade level or teaching team can work together on a project with the coach’s support. Our VCI teachers take on challenging projects, such as the design of a new capstone course, fall and spring PBL experiences, or a school-wide video conference event.
During the course of the school year, the coach helps the VCI participant understand Project-Based Learning and other student-centered pedagogies, design and assess global competencies, develop new collaborative partnerships, identify key themes in global learning, network and find global speakers and partners, plan global events, and employ video conferencing strategies. This is a custom-tailored professional development experience designed to produce tangible results for teachers and schools.
Each year, World Leadership School runs life- and career-changing travel programs for teachers. These programs allow teachers to be students again and re-envision their place in the world. Along the way, we leverage the group’s wisdom and experience for deep reflections around personal and professional growth. Each year we offer programs focused on Project- and Place-based learning, which includes work on teaching and assessing global competencies. Participants live in a small community, visit local schools, share practices with local teachers, and develop a project to bring back to their classroom or school community. WLS also runs individualized Educator Development programs for schools interested in sending a larger team for the purpose of re-envisioning global learning or work on a specific school change initiative.
In the summer of 2020, WLS will offer two transformational Educator Development Travel programs, one in El Paso and the other in Peru.
The Border Studies and Immigration Practice Program in El Paso Program will provide a unique opportunity for educators to take a deep dive into Mexico/US border relations and the specifics of immigration practices in the US. The goal of this program is to gain exposure to numerous and varied perspectives on this complex global issue and to provide participants with practical tools to bring back to their classrooms and schools.
The Exploring Purpose Learning in the Peruvian Andes Program will connect with Peru’s culture and people as we examine the following question: “What can we learn from inspired community agents of change that will help us create effective student-centered learning experiences that allow students to explore their own sense of purpose?” Using Purpose Learning as a lens, we will partner with social activists and successful agents for change in the Ollantaytambo region of Peru to learn more about facilitating students as change agents in their communities.
Please contact Dr. Shayna Cooke with any questions that you might have about these programs or for the WLS application if you would like to join us!
We are in a new era of teaching where learning is increasingly heading off campus. Study abroad used to mean museum tours in European countries, but now teachers and students are going everywhere and doing everything. It’s not just for a few intrepid families, it’s for every single student in your school – including students with medical and behavioral issues. It’s not once a year, it’s every day – internships, field trips, service days, sporting events. Some of these activities, such as homestays, have low levels of supervision and inherent risks – but parents assume the opposite.
As a result, it’s time for school leaders to become professional risk managers who can lead productive conversations across the school community about risk and learning. It’s also time for teachers who lead off-campus programs (local or global) to receive annual training in how to manage off-campus risks, and also how to connect learning with off-campus experiences.
World Leadership School offers a one-day trip leader training workshop, which integrates trip design and structure (including options for ground support), risk assessment tools and awareness, emergency management, group dynamics, and curricular integration strategies. Our trainings are designed to be immersive experiences that challenge faculty to think in new ways, ask each other tough questions, and dive into real-life emergency management scenarios. WLS also offers a half-day administrator workshop that includes review and audit of off-campus policy and procedures including: student application and screening processes, behavioral and expulsion policies, insurance, use of contractors, incident tracking and review, employee policies and procedures, trip leader selection and training, and school-wide processes and policies around managing risks. Ideally, this half-day workshop takes place the day before the trip leader workshop.
Note: World Leadership School does not take responsibility for legal guidance around waivers and other paperwork, as legal requirements vary between states and should be determined by the school’s legal counsel.
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